


Smile

by Theta-Signa (cathat77)



Series: A Sterek-filled November [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Future, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-02
Updated: 2012-11-02
Packaged: 2017-11-17 14:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cathat77/pseuds/Theta-Signa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first of (hopefully) thirty drabbles during the month of November. II College AU</p><p>Derek is a TA, and Stiles is one of his students. They're crushing on each other. Unrelenting fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smile

Stiles’s mouth is open wide because he just can’t stop staring at…him. _He_ is Derek Hale – God’s best example of perfection since Lydia Martin sashayed into his third grade math class and flipped her strawberry blonde hair over her shoulder as she introduced herself. Derek looks nothing like Lydia Martin. He’s tall with broad shoulders, smoldering eyes ringed with dark lashes, and soft black hair just long enough to tug on. But, he’s like Lydia that he’s also insanely smart and doesn’t take any bullshit. In fact, that’s probably why Derek’s a TA for the biology department.

Derek stalks around the lab like he means business, and he’s probably why most of the freshmen he TAs end up having higher averages than everyone else. Derek’s frightening at first – well, he’s frightening all the time, but he frightens everyone into learning. He stops by every lab bench and barks out questions. It scares the shit out of Stiles the first time he does it, looming over him as he writes notes about how the spec-20 works and how it will detect the activity of tyrosinase. Stiles remembers twitching violently and nearly dropping his cuvette. Only Derek’s steady hand and an incredulous look manages to stop it from falling, but Stiles has never really forgotten Derek’s warm hand on his wrist.

So, when Derek asks him a question, a really simple one at that, (what the Sudan IV test detects) and Stiles just stands there gaping at him, he suddenly feels like he’s lost the chance to actually talk to Derek for once. Stiles’s benchmate, Blair, smoothly interjects her perfectly sexy voice and long swishy flippy hair and tells exactly the right answer. She cocks her hips and smiles in that way that she does that Stiles has seen at parties where boys will practically trip over themselves to get her a drink so that she doesn’t have to touch any of the coolers. (Stiles and she get along on most days except on the ones where she wants to flirt with Derek, but it’s not like Stiles has a valid reason to stop her. It’s not like he and Derek are dating.) Derek, on the other hand, doesn’t look impressed. While she’s right about the answer, he goes through all of the tests anyway and asks questions throughout.

After lab is over, Stiles just wants to slink back to his dorm room and sink into his bed, covers over his head to block out the embarrassment that he feels. He packs up his things and goes outside to shove his lab manual and notebook into his bag, head looking firmly on the ground. He’s so determined about it that he doesn’t even notice Derek standing right in front of him.

He looks up, mouth open wide. Stiles has no idea what to say to him. Derek’s glower concentrates for a second before clearing up. “Stiles…” Derek seems to shake his head after this as if he’s considering something.

“Umm…yes?”

But, whatever Derek was going to say, he’s apparently changed his mind about it because he says this next, “Never mind….”

Stiles’s heart races just for a little bit. For a second there, Stiles has the crazy idea that Derek would want to ask him out – on a date of all things. But, of course not…. Stiles is tugging on the strap of his bag, desperately thinking about what Derek could want from him.

“Umm…look, if this about Scott….” For all Stiles knows, it could be about the fact that Scott is pledging for Derek’s frat. Last time, one of Derek’s frat brothers told Stiles to deliver a message to Scott, and when Scott unfolded that piece of paper, Scott flipped the fuck out. He still won’t tell Stiles what was on it.

But Derek stops him with a head shake. “No, it’s not about that.” Derek seems just as nervous about this weird, outside-of-class interaction they’re having. He’s tapping his fingers on his binder. “Look…I know we don’t really know each other, but do you want to get coffee sometime?”

Stiles is stunned, stunned enough to say something stupid like, “I don’t really like coffee.”  Derek’s face crumples, almost too quickly for Stiles to catch it, and Stiles wants to fix it, like right now. “But…I like tea. Do you know a coffee shop where I can get tea?”

Derek nods and smiles. It’s a good look on him. Stiles likes it, and with a shy smile on his face, he asks if they can exchange numbers.

Years later, they still go out on little coffee dates, even when they’re married and happy, because Stiles loves to see that slow and sweet smile spread across Derek’s face. Derek loves to see Stiles hold his cup with long fingers and sip at his tea with that slight fear of scalding his mouth before relishing the taste. At their wedding, Scott, as Stiles’s best man, jokes that they’ll be old and crotchety and still going out on their little coffee dates, and who knows…maybe, it’ll be true. 

**Author's Note:**

> Although I've already picked out my drabbles for this month, if you'd like to see any written, send me a message on my tumblr: theta-signa.tumblr. com
> 
> Thanks. :)


End file.
